Tortoises Break Up —After a Century Together

They were together as a couple for more than a century until out of the blue, Bibi and Poldi—two giant Galápagos tortoises who live in an Austrian zoo—broke off their relationship. The split was anything but cordial, reports Der Spiegel. A belligerent Bibi bit off part of Poldi's shell. "We had to separate them," the zoo's director told a local paper this week. "All of [a] sudden, she just couldn't stand Poldi anymore."

The two tortoises were born in 1897 and spent their early years together before becoming an item. They moved to their current home in Klagenfurt, Austria, in 1976. Experts are stumped as to why the twosome separated. Nothing in their daily routine had changed, and a mental evaluation of Bibi turned up fine. "Perhaps it can be attributed to a mid-life crisis on Bibi's part," speculates Der Spiegel. "After all, Galápagos tortoises can live for 150 years or more." (More Galapagos Islands stories.)